Math Puzzles and Brainteasers, Grades 3-5: Over 300 Puzzles that Teach Math and Problem-Solving Skills

We really like these books (we bought the Grades 6-8 edition as well). Our kids' school tends to teach Rote memorization of math facts and de-emphasizes basic problem solving skills. I think that a basic failing of the school's curriculum and one that we wanted to overcome this summer. That's where these books come in. None of the puzzles require anything besides the most basic of math skills. But, they do teach problem solving (how to recognize patterns, trial & error, experimenting, visualization, etc).We're pretty impressed with the results, too. After working with the books for a month, our kids have shown considerable improvement from the start of the summer.

The book has fun activities and puzzles but it is extremely difficult for my 3rd grader. I know it's supposed to be a brainteaser book but I do think it's more for 5-7th graders.

I was perusing the pages of this book with the "Look Inside" feature and found a BIG mistake with the math terminology. There are two questions (81 and 82) on page 49 using Venn Diagrams to compare two numbers. Each of these questions INCORRECTLY states that the numbers in the circles are FACTORS of another number. The numbers in the circles are NOT factors, they are MULTIPLES. I teach remedial math at the high school level and we are working on this topic right now. I did a double take on those two questions - how could a mistake like this get past the editing process?? Hasn't anyone who's purchased this book noticed this and pointed it out to the publisher? For the sake of math educators and students everywhere, I hope page 49 showing in the "Look Inside" feature has been corrected in the print version of this book.

This was going to be summer enrichment for a 3rd grader... but 307 brainteasers / math puzzles were too interesting to wait for summer.Terry Stickels did a wonderful job of creating deep-thinking fun puzzles. This is not an easy book, it is meant for a child who loves math and enjoys a challenge.

Awesome book. I was looking for a book that would keep my child engaged and I got the perfect one. This helps him concentrate and think. The puzzles are perfect for grades 3-5. I highly recommend this book to all parents who care for their kids education and future.

Great puzzles to use with kids in school or after dinner. I know kids who do them for fun...really! Highly recommended.

My daughter loves working on this book, as it is engaging and novel. This is a good way to witness the multidimensionality and creative quotient of your child. I wish there were more books like this.

After looking at the "Look Inside" section of this book I do not recommend it. Why? Because whoever put the book together for the Kindle obviously does not understand the use of the "Look Inside" Math Puzzles is to show something about the puzzles and games. Not to showcase credits and other stuff a purchaser does not care about. I suspect the book was a scan of the printed book by the hard book publisher who does not understand the Kindle process.In the entire "Look Inside" there is not one puzzle or game shown as an example of what you are expected to pay over $15 to obtain.While I believe what is said about Terry Stickles as being a brilliant puzzle creator in the Foreword, I would not buy this book based on not being able to see at least one or two puzzles.

This is a really great book. I have just worked through it with my 10 year old daughter and it has really helped her develop problemsolving skills. As the author says, at schools they just don't teach kids to think about problems and problemsolving as a skill. Here he introduces simple puzzles, bite-sized little fun snippets, just right to catch their imagination.As I write this there's one other review that is very negative in a pedantic manner, but to be honest, the book is fab. The occasional puzzle is a bit trivial, but given there are hundreds of them, you just move on. If you're a normal parent just wanting to help out your kid, or a teacher trying to interest your class, this could be the best book you've bought.We've worked through it doing a couple of puzzles at bedtime each day and each one leads on to interesting discussions about all sorts of branches of maths. Brilliant!

The idea for this book (and its companion for grades 6-8) is very good. Also, the majority of the brain-teasers are well thought out and would stimulate the mind of any child. Unfortunately, there are several cases where the problem is poorly posed, or outright wrong. I'll give two examples, found in the first 10 minutes perusing the book:* Problem 225 is poorly posed from a pedagogical viewpoint. The explanatory diagram clearly contains four vertical paths and two horizontal paths, but the text asserts that there are only three vertical paths. The solution to the problem diagram (which also has four vertical paths) requires that only three of the vertical paths be considered. Either the diagrams should be changed, or there should be additional text indicating that the last move must be horizontal (this would render the fourth vertical path unusable in both diagrams). The answer pages were also silent on this topic.* Problem 260 contains a glaring error which any adult will spot in less than a second. A Braille alphabet is given as reference, a sequence of Braille glyphs is provided and the missing last glyph/letter in the sequence is to be deduced. Unfortunately, although most of the letters in the Braille sequence are four places alphabetically after their predecessor, the second letter is only three places after the first, destroying the pattern which would reveal the answer. This is blithely ignored in the given answer for this problem. Actually the answer itself contains another error, in that as well as wrongly asserting that the sequence is every fourth letter, it actually leaves one letter out.Both of these examples are of a nature which undermines the objective of the book. If they had been done properly, they would be brain-teasers for young minds. As they actually appear, they are a frustration which require "special pleading" to explain away.This review applies to the first edition of the book, published in September 2009 and purchased in January 2011. I checked the web sites for both books, and there is no list of errata (the book was published over a year ago) or author contact information. Until corrections are available for these books, only parents who are competent in logical problems should consider buying them, since every problem will need to be vetted for misleading presentation or actual error. This admonition also applies if you are a teacher planning to use the book in a classroom.My advice: consider waiting for the second edition.

A good read.